Nation of Language Reignites '80s New Wave and Nostalgia This Weekend

For Brooklyn-based synth-pop band Nation of Language, returning to Denver to play the Gothic Theatre on Sunday, October 22, brings back special memories from 2021, when the group came to town on tour for the first time. The COVID lockdown had just ended, and Nation of Language was headlining Lost Lake Lounge. “It was one of the first shows of ours that sold out. Before the pandemic, we never sold out a show, no matter how small of a venue,” recalls frontman and vocalist Ian Devaney.

“It was the perfect shape of a room, and the audience was fully invested in the show with us. It was one of the most fun shows of that tour,” adds Aidan Noell, keyboardist, synth wizard and Devaney's wife.

Lost Lake holds about 150 people. Two years later, Nation of Language is on an extensive tour of North America and Europe supporting its third album, Strange Disciple — and selling out 1,000-capacity rooms.

“It’s defiantly beyond our comprehension,” says Devaney.

Nation of Language could be seen as somewhat of a COVID success story. The trio, which includes bassist Alex MacKay (Michael Sue-Poi was bassist up until 2022), released its debut album, Introduction, Presence, in May 2020 to a warm reception from the indie-rock community and fans of ’80s New Wave. COVID put a halt to tour plans, but the album did not go away.

Introduction, Presence establishes Nation of Language as a band fully embracing the iconic larger-than-life sound that made such ’80s bands as Tears for Fears, the Human League and New Order stand the test of time. The album permeated the internet at a time of intense social isolation, and the band quickly followed it up with its second album, A Way Forward, in 2021. At this point, the algorithm that pushes social media content had a firm hold on the group's output; Devaney’s soaring, heartfelt vocals over rich, swelling synthesizers and dance beats made an easy fit for countless suggested-music playlists.

"From what I gathered, the music served two purposes for people: They could sit with it in a blissful melancholic kind of way, or they can dance to it in an ‘I’m so cooped up’ kind of way,” says Devaney. “It ends up being reflected in the people we see from the stage. There will be the people who are dancing, then there will be the person who is crying. Or the people making out.”

The third album, Strange Disciple, is very much a continuation of the band's previous work. The Nation of Language members treat their ’80s-style elements with reverence. Audiences are drawn to the sense of nostalgia that the act has captured, and Strange Disciple kicks that into high gear. It's almost reminiscing about what could have been, allowing the listener to be the main character of their own John Hughes movie.

“When I hear how people have these kinds of feelings for our music — because I’ve had so many of my own throughout my life — it’s one of those things that impacts me the most,” says Devaney. “I think so often I define certain parts of my life by the bands that I knew and the people that I knew.”

Devaney credits his love for new wave and synthesizer music to hearing the song “Electricity” by Orchestral Movements in the Dark and falling in love with the simplicity of it. Diving into the history of the genre, both Devaney and Noell have come to appreciate the synthesizer’s place in pop culture, particularly the idea that they look and sound like a piece of futuristic machinery, despite the technology's having been around for almost a century.

“Especially in the context of films, synthesizer music has been used to soundtrack the future,” quips Devaney. “Every once in a while we’ll be watching a movie and I’ll be like, ‘Wait a minute, that computer thing behind them is just a synthesizer.'”

Prior to life in Nation of Language, Noell received her master's degree in history, and Devaney was working in various service-industry jobs while he pursued his passion for music. When posed with the question of what they would want to do for a living if they weren’t successful musicians, Devaney struggles. For Noell, it’s matter of returning to academia, but as she tells Devaney, “You never really gave yourself a Plan B.”

“Without banking on success, I feel grateful that I never really hated any of my service-industry jobs. It’s an industry that can have a great number of challenges, but I’ve always found there to be a real fantastic sense of camaraderie within it,” adds Devaney. Despite his appreciation for the server life, it was never enough for him to pursue it full-time.

“Because I wanted music to be my main thing, I was very good at avoiding responsibility,” laughs Devaney. “Please don’t make me an assistant manager and have to start emailing people when I’m not at work.”

Nation of Language, 7 p.m. Sunday, October 22, The Gothic Theatre, 3263 South Broadway. Tickets are $30.